I'm certainly not telling anyone to take out their backup pump, but I'm wondering if I might just leave mine out. 

 

Cheers

It is not usually the engine that causes the problems, but the support systems and the builders understanding of those systems. At Sun&Fun last spring I saw a cotter pin being used where an AN clevis pin should have been. The cotter pin failing would have returned the throttle to idle on this particular rotary powered aircraft. My friend Joe Salyer (Flys the 550 Bonanza) and I stopped in one of the parts tents and bought the right part for 25 cents and gifted it the builder.

 

So, my thinking is that if there is a chance to eliminate the possibility that I might be looking for a flat spot to land on, in a very quiet airplane, for the lack of a pump, or a loose cable under the dash that will open the throttle when that aircraft quality rod end snaps off through a thread. Then there will be a last chance cable to open the throttle. There will be a cable to keep the engine on the firewall in the event of a prop blade failure.

 

When you get this old, you keep working on getting older.

 

I was at Western Electric when we invented the DED (Pronounced "Dead") or, Darkness Emitting Diode. 

These were conventional diodes that had been destroyed by over voltage and had become useless, except that when exposed to a light source, they would generate a cone of darkness on the lee, or down light side of the diode.

 

That picture will be sent on to many people who used to work on British cars.

Thank you.

 

Lynn E. Hanover